Our attorneys are proud to award this year’s scholarship to an incoming Vanderbilt Law School student committed to ‘racial and ethnic diversity’ in the practice of law
Congratulations to Jenae Ward who is the winner of the Michigan Auto Law 2016 Law Student Diversity Scholarship!
Jenae will be a first-year law student at Vanderbilt Law School, in Nashville, Tennessee, this fall. She is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in both History and International Studies.
Among the many impressive scholarship applications from talented law school students, Jenae’s stood out for the commitment she’s shown to promoting greater racial and ethnic diversity within both the student body and the surrounding community.
In her essay, Jenae wrote:
“I believe that the best way in which anyone can encourage and promote racial and ethnic diversity is to bring people together in respectful conversations and interactions. As a future law student, I hope to continue encouraging diversity on campus through organizations that support racial and ethnic minority groups.”
Encouraging racial and ethnic diversity
We were impressed that, while pursuing her studies at Emory University, Jenae chose to “take an active role in encouraging and maintain a diverse campus while exploring race relations on a macro level.”
For example, Jenae worked for a student-run publication “that focused on minority issue and race relations on campus” and whose programming included:
“[S]ponsoring conversations between various student-run ethnic or racial organizations such as Hillel, the Jewish student organization, and the Black Student Association … to allow for further connections to be made between diverse groups of people.”
Additionally, as a University Worship Student Deacon, Jenae “created a welcoming environment in which people of all faith backgrounds or even no faith backgrounds could come together for service as well as a meal and fellowship afterwards.”
Similarly, as an Emory Scholars Program CoffeeTalk Programs Coordinator, Jenae brought “in faculty and community leaders and [had] them lead discussions between intentionally diverse student groups allowing for connections to be made beyond peoples’ ethnic or racial groups.”
Lastly, not only did Jenae “participate in discussions and action plans with the University President and Dean of Students” when race-related issues arose on campus, but, after graduation, Jenae “chose to do ‘Teach For America’ in order to make sure that my students who come from a majority low-income were able to obtain a good education so that they would be better able to compete in a diverse workforce.”
Those are precisely the qualities the world will need in our future lawyers.
And, they’re the qualities that make Jenae Ward the perfect recipient for our 2016 Law Student Diversity Scholarship.
Our lawyers wish Jenae the very best during her studies at Vanderbilt Law School and in her promising, legal career that will follow.
Michigan Auto Law scholarships
Each year, Michigan Auto Law awards a Diversity Scholarship to a law student. The next scholarship deadline is June 1, 2017. For more information on application guidelines and eligibility, visit our Diversity Scholarship webpage.
Michigan Auto Law also offers two other scholarships annually.
In addition to the Law Student Diversity Scholarship, our attorneys contribute to a scholarship for college students who have been seriously injured in an automobile accident as well as a Distracted Driving Awareness scholarship for high school juniors and seniors. Visit our Scholarship Page to learn more.
